Rihanna's former church pastor: 'She should steer clear of Chris Brown and stop partying'

Rihanna's former church pastor has told her that she should stay away from her ex-boyfriend, the singer Chris Brown.

The 'Talk That Talk' star caused controversy when she recently collaborated with Brown on a remix of her track 'Birthday Cake'. Brown had previously attacked her on the evening of the 2009 Grammy Awards and was subsequently sentenced to five years of probation and six months of community labour, with a US court rejecting his plea to end his probation term last month (February 10).

In an interview with The Sun, Bishop Vibert Lowe of Barbados said that the singer should not become too close to Brown, stating:

After all he did, I'd tell her to steer clear of him. He's not the correct influence on her life.

Lowe also criticised Rihanna's sexualized image and high-profile partying. "A lot of people have been praying for her and hoping that she will drop these bad habits," he added. "We feel it's wrong for her to behave like this. As a young lady, she's not setting a good example.

"Young people look to her as a mentor, they regard her as an idol and copy her lifestyle. There are people on the island who think she parties way too hard."

His comments come less than week after singer Will Young claimed that Rihanna was a poor role model for women (March 8). The Pop Idol winner said that her lyrics weren't empowering, adding: "Women in a patriarchal society should be empowering and owning their bodies, I don't think Rihanna is. I feel quite strongly about this."

And US pressure groups called for the video for her single 'Man Down' to be banned after they claimed it promoted murder, although she insisted it could help "give a voice to victims". The video portrayed her shooting an attacker after being raped.